


Drink Down that Gin and Kerosene

by kimpotato



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Crack, Gen, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Video & Computer Games, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:00:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23714806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimpotato/pseuds/kimpotato
Summary: “You know, for a professional gamer,” Dongho hissed as he gripped his sword tensely, “you’re a pretty lousy survivalist in real life.”
Relationships: Kang Dongho | Baekho & Kim Jonghyun | JR, Kang Dongho | Baekho/Kim Jonghyun | JR
Comments: 16
Kudos: 26





	Drink Down that Gin and Kerosene

**Author's Note:**

  * For [baekhos_sassy_ass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baekhos_sassy_ass/gifts).



> Trigger warning: Violence against zombies.

“You really should just leave me here.”

Dongho raised both eyebrows in mock surprise, watching Jonghyun from his slumped position, all cuts and bruises. They had just finished ransacking one of the many abandoned houses on the block, when Jonghyun clumsily tripped over nothing and fell face-first on the floor.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting much from you to begin with, but . . . wow.”

Jonghyun managed a thin smile as he pulled himself up. “No sympathy for your best friend whatsoever?”

Dongho snorted. “I had to run my jikdo through _our_ best friend last week to save your bony ass,” he reminded his companion. 

It was funny, in a twisted sort of way, how they could talk so casually about it now. After all, when the end of the world began two weeks ago, nobody could quite well believe it. Sure, everyone in Seoul knew about _Train to Busan_ or have heard of the _Kingdom_ series _,_ but nobody really expected hordes of zombies to actually overrun the city. There had been a lot of fear and tears that first week, and a lot of uncertainty, too. Now the tears have mostly dried up (“We gotta conserve on water”), and fear became such a constant that it didn’t really bother them that much anymore.

Jonghyun sniffed. Out of guilt or in memory of their fallen friend, Dongho wasn’t quite sure. Still, he knew there really wasn’t much either of them could do about it. Dongho was sure that if it were the other way around, if _he_ had been bitten by a walker, any of his best friends would have off’d him, too. 

“Whatever,” Dongho muttered, signalling for Jonghyun to start walking. “We’re losing daylight. Let’s go.”

“Yes, yes,” Jonghyun sighed, dusting his pants and picking up his weapon. _If_ a metal frying pan could even be considered a weapon. But Jonghyun had accidentally dropped his baseball bat in the Han River just an hour ago, so he picked up the first available item on the counter the minute they entered the abandoned apartment.

“You should really get a knife, at least,” Dongho winced as Jonghyun made a few practice swipes in the air.

“I don’t know,” Jonghyun shrugged. “I think I’ve grown attached to this one.”

Dongho rolled his eyes as he gestured for Jonghyun to follow him. His companion jogged to his side, frying pan on the ready. 

***

_“Get out of the way!” Jonghyun yelled as Dongho’s character came in line of fire of Jonghyun’s sniper scope._

_Dongho laughed in panic and quickly made his character duck, just in time for Jonghyun’s character to shoot an incoming PC from another team. “Yah, what’s happening?” he squealed when he heard more shooting. “Who shot at me? Why would they do that?! Jonghyun-ah, don’t leave me alone!”_

_He heard Jonghyun grunt beside him when both their PCs fell down, dying one after the other. He laughed some more, especially since Jonghyun made a frustrated face as he laughed along with him._

_“You’re really bad at this,” Jonghyun teased._

_“I don’t even deny it,” Dongho agreed._

_The dorm room suddenly opened and in came Mingi and Minhyun, both carrying big bags with them. One was going home to Busan for the weekend, one was going to a dance rehearsal that was expected to last till late in the evening._

_“Did you kick his ass?” Mingi grinned as he walked in and hovered behind them, peering into the computer monitors._

_“We’re teammates,” Dongho announced proudly._

_Mingi raised an eyebrow and turned to Jonghyun, as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “You actually agreed to this?”_

_Jonghyun shrugged and grinned helplessly. “I didn’t expect much from him, to be honest.”_

_Both Mingi and Minhyun snorted, even as they started to head back toward the door. “See you later then,” they said simultaneously._

_Dongho laughed as he waved them goodbye. “Don’t let the monsters get you,” he joked._

_Minhyun grinned as Mingi rolled his eyes. “You’re such a child,” he chuckled as he shut the door._

_Dongho beamed when he noticed that Jonghyun had rebooted the game. “One more round?”_

_Jonghyun nodded, already handing him his console. “Don’t die on me this time.”_

_Three hours later, news of the first infection made its way across the campus._

***

“You think he’ll really be there?” Jonghyun murmured out of nowhere, after minutes of silence. 

They were on their way back to their hideout, after spending another hour looking for supplies. They didn’t have much success, but they did manage to find a medicine kit and a few canned goods. The kit contained painkillers, just generic paracetamol, but still enough to ease Aaron’s pain for at least a week. Their hyung was currently resting back in the hideout, still not fully recovered from his shoulder injury, an injury that had nothing to do with the zombie apocalypse at all.

“In Busan?” Dongho clarified. 

Jonghyun made a small grunt in the affirmative. It wasn’t the first time they’d broached the subject, but it was the first time Jonghyun sounded so unsure about it.

“No doubt,” Dongho nodded. “That’s where he was headed before everything went to hell, right?” When Jonghyun didn’t respond, Dongho felt the need to reassure his friend. “He’s fine. He may look daft sometimes, but he’s tougher than we give him credit for.”

“We didn’t even get the chance to tell him about Min—”

“Ssh,” Dongho hushed his friend, gripping the hilt of his jikdo tightly as they neared a corner. He took a quick peek and found that the street remained deserted, just like how it was when they passed it more than an hour ago.

“Okay, it looks safe,” he whispered, slowly turning right, weapon still on the ready. This street was the last major hurdle before they make it back to their hideout. It was also where they lost one of their friends seven, eight days ago.

***

_“Shit!”_

_Dongho pulled his sword out of the walker’s eye socket and watched as it fell backward on top of another zombie. Behind him, he could hear his friends yelling, fighting their own mini-battles with the undead._

_The next second, Aaron came to view, waving off one of his golf clubs at an approaching zombie. Dongho could see that he was struggling, the injury from his last tournament still not fully healed. Dongho rushed to his hyung’s aid, cleaving the walker cleanly in two._

_“Thanks, Dongho-ya,” Aaron gasped as he gripped his injured shoulder in pain._

_“Stay near me, Hyung,” Dongho instructed._

_Then a yell._

_Both Dongho and Aaron turned and watched in horror as one of their best friends, someone they had spent the last eight years with, tried to eat the brains of their other friend._

_“Stop!” Jonghyun screamed even as he sobbed, as he tried to push back their friend with his baseball bat. “It’s me, Jonghyun! Stop, Min—!”_

_Dongho rushed forward, no thoughts, head empty, aside from his goal of saving his living friend from his undead one. A squelching pop, as he pierced his jikdo into the zombie’s head, indicated that he had succeeded._

_Jonghyun pushed the body away, chest heaving as he did. “He never came back to the dorm,” he whispered, even as Dongho grabbed his collar and forced him to stand._

_“We can mourn him later,” he hissed, trying his best not to let a sob escape his lips. He warily scanned the street, counting how many more undead they needed to finish off. “We have bigger problems right now.”_

***

The two friends tiptoed stealthily, careful not to step on any litter scattered on the road. They were already in the middle of the street when Dongho heard a loud clang, shattering the eerie silence enveloping them. He slowly turned and glared at Jonghyun, who was in the process of picking up the frying pan from the cold, blood-spattered ground.

“For the love of . . .”

He heard the first growl, a quiet moan. Several more followed. Within seconds, more than a dozen zombies crawled out of their hidey-holes, and slow as they were, they were quickly surrounding the duo from all sides.

“You know, for a professional gamer,” Dongho hissed as he gripped his sword tensely, “you’re a pretty lousy survivalist in real life.”

“I resent that!” Jonghyun whined, even as he knelt down to get something from his backpack.

“What are you doing?!” Dongho growled as the first zombie approached. He neatly sliced its head in half, kicking it back so that it hit two more approaching walkers. “We gotta start running.”

“Shut up,” Jonghyun muttered as he fished out a small glass bottle filled with yellow liquid from his bag. 

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Dongho protested as he sliced off three more zombies. “You had that with you this whole time?!”

Jonghyun grinned excitedly, the way he usually did whenever he was about to do a combo move in whatever video game he was currently playing. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and quickly lit the cloth wick sticking out the bottle’s mouth.

“Incoming!” 

“Who are you yelling out a warning for?!” Dongho shouted even as he knelt down and covered his ears. 

Jonghyun laughed as he tossed the molotov cocktail in the middle of a huge group of walkers. There was a loud boom, and Dongho felt the heat, smelled the burning rotted flesh, waft toward them. 

“Lezz’go!” Jonghyun tapped him on the shoulder, before quickly running away from the swarm. Dongho quickly followed suit, and for a few precious seconds, it was Jonghyun who was leading him, like how he’d lead him back when they were playing PUBG in their dorm. Life was simpler then, and the only worry they really had was whether they reviewed enough to pass their next midterms.

They ran and ran and ran, passing by old haunts, their favorite convenient store, that cafe they loved to hang out in during exams’ week, the arcade where Minhyun and Mingi once battled it out on air hockey. They kept running, past old houses and stores long abandoned, until they reached a small apartment, where Aaron was waiting, praying for their safe return.

***

_“Let’s go to Busan,” Dongho announced after five days of hiding out in their dorms._

_Jonghyun and Aaron both looked up from their plates. Dinner that night consisted of uncooked ramyeon and a bottle of kimchi they found in the dorm’s kitchen two days ago._

_“Word has it that Busan hasn’t been hit by the catastrophe yet.”_

_Jonghyun managed a small, mischievous smile. “Are you sure it’s the news you were watching and not the movie?”_

_Dongho couldn’t stop himself from grinning. It was a relief, seeing Jonghyun almost back to normal, whatever new normal they were in now. Dongho wouldn’t have blamed him if he needed more time to recover; it wasn’t everyday that one of your best friends tried to eat you up . . . literally._

_“Says that guy who didn’t know the difference between a game SFX and a real fire truck siren,” he teased._

_“They sound the same!”_

_“No they don’t!”_

_“Yes they do!”_

_Both Dongho and Jonghyun paused mid-bickering when Aaron laughed a hearty laugh. “I missed Dong and Jjery,” he grinned, wiping the tears from his eyes._

_Dongho smiled softly as Jonghyun crawled toward Aaron and wrapped his arms around him. The three friends looked at each other and nodded._

_“To Busan it is.”_

***

Dongho leaned against the wall and took deep, shaky breaths. “Warn me earlier next time, asshole,” he hissed, even as he tried to recover his breath. He looked up and found Jonghyun with a faraway look. “Jonghyun-ah?”

Jonghyun turned to him, eyes watery with regret. Guilt washed over Dongho’s chest. He knew Jonghyun was only trying to help. Maybe he went overboard with scolding him? “Yah, I didn’t mean _—_ ”

“I didn’t get to use it at all!” 

Jonghyun stomped his foot, clearly annoyed. He pouted, gripping his favored weapon with both hands. Dongho looked at it, then back at Jonghyun. It took everything in his power not to roll his eyes. 

On the one hand, he was relieved that Jonghyun could still smile despite their situation. It gave Dongho hope that things would be all right after all. 

On the other hand, would it hurt him not to act like a dumbass for once?

Dongho was just about to scold Jonghyun again when he saw a glint of mischief flash across his friend’s starry eyes.

“Dongho-ya?”

Dongho paused. “W-what?” He did not like where this conversation was going.

Jonghyun grinned brightly, waving his frying pan in the air. “Can we run for more supplies?”

Dongho cringed as he stopped himself from face-palming. “Hell no!”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Fall Out Boy's "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner"
> 
> Thanks, A, for teaching me not to worry too much about my word count.


End file.
